Personal Notes
Personal posts, conference notes, career reflections, and the bits of life that sit around the frontend work.
-
AI has to survive contact with the public sector
Notes from a Scrumconnect panel at TechNExt 2026. The AI model is the easy part. The hard part is everything around it.
-
Fail fast and stay human: Pete Cheyne at TechNExt 2026
Pete Cheyne at TechNExt 2026, and the small amount of founder advice that still makes sense if you work for a living.
-
The route in: Darren Curry at TechNExt 2026
Darren Curry of NHS Business Services Authority at TechNExt 2026, and the practical hiring checklist from his talk on social mobility in tech.
-
I've got 3 free Cowork trials to give away
Claude Cowork gives you a desktop AI that can actually touch your files. Here's what it is, what I use it for, and how to get a free week.
-
Camp Digital 2026: Notes from Manchester
I spent a day at Camp Digital 2026 in Manchester. Twelve sessions covering AI, content design, public services, creativity, and digital culture. Here's what I took away.
-
I Am Not Ready: Zhen Yang at Camp Digital 2026
Zhen Yang gave a 5-minute talk at Camp Digital 2026 while visibly nervous, forgot their lines a couple of times, and kept going anyway. It was one of the most honest things I watched all day.
-
Amor Fati: James Bilham at Camp Digital 2026
A 5-minute talk from a para-triathlon national champion who fell off a cliff, woke up in hospital and thought 'right, what are we doing' — and what that has to do with how you face a challenge.
-
Use AI to Support You. Don't Let It Think For You.
Robin Roy's 5-minute talk at Camp Digital 2026 made a simple but important point about how AI tools change the way we think — and what to do about it. Worth reading if you're earlier in your career.
-
Screening Forwards: What We Should Actually Hire for Now
Basanite's 5-minute talk at Camp Digital 2026 made a clean argument: technical hiring tests candidates for the skills AI is best at. We should test for the skill AI can't replicate, knowing where the output is wrong.
-
Intentional Friction: AI in Professional Advice Services
A 5-minute lightning talk from Citizens Advice at Camp Digital 2026 that made a simple, important point: smooth AI integration might be exactly the wrong goal when the service depends on professional judgement.
-
Chewing Gum and Prayers: Tessa on Building Scotland's Ukraine Digital Response
A Programme Director at the Scottish Government built a digital infrastructure for 29,000 Ukrainian refugees from a single spreadsheet and two part-time staff. What she learned the hard way is worth reading.
-
It's Not Just the Words: Candi Williams at Camp Digital 2026
Candi Williams on content design as a linguistic system, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and why treating it as 'just the words' completely misses the point. Also: a form field that saved a company £12 million.
-
Play Is a Strategy: Laura Yarrow at Camp Digital 2026
Laura Yarrow, Head of Design at GDS, on the conditions for creativity, speculative design, government-sponsored pigs, and why intentionality is now the genuine bottleneck, not execution.
-
The Misinformation Problem Nobody's Talking About Enough: Dan Barrett at Camp Digital 2026
Dan Barrett from Citizens Advice at Camp Digital 2026 on building data culture, AI use cases in advice services, and the growing problem of people arriving already harmed by AI-generated information.
-
The Hero Who Hides the Gap: Himal Mandalia at Camp Digital 2026
Himal Mandalia's talk at Camp Digital 2026 reframes burnout not as a personal failure but as a systems problem. The organisation never fixes the gap because someone keeps filling it.
-
Hope is a Professional Tool: Rachel Coldicutt at Camp Digital 2026
Rachel Coldicutt opened Camp Digital 2026 by talking about hope. Not as a vague feel-good concept, but as something shareable and practical. She also launched a professional solidarity network for tech workers who want their industry to do better.
-
LocalGov Drupal Camp 2025: Takeaways on Accessibility and AI
Reflections from Westminster after attending LocalGov Drupal Camp, with a focus on accessibility, AI, and spending time with colleagues in person.
-
Starting at 41: Right, It's Time To Get My Own Stuff Going
How years of doubt, ADHD, and life delays held me back, and why now, in my 40s, I'm finally getting it done anyway.